


The Curious Case of William Pratt

by Niamh



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: Gen, thinking thinky thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:35:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27474370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Niamh/pseuds/Niamh
Summary: Just a thought or two on the origins (see that pun?) of William Pratt (a/k/a William the Bloody, a/k/a Spike)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 6





	The Curious Case of William Pratt

_**The curious case of William Pratt**_  
  
Sometime after the last episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, Joss Whedon announced to the world that William the Bloody’s family surname was Pratt.  
  
While the theory abounds that Whedon was playing on the idea that Boris Karloff’s real name was William Henry Pratt and that he gave Spike the surname Pratt as part of an inside joke, I think that quite possibly wasn’t the entire story.  
  
So, being me, I set out to discover what being a Pratt might mean for our favorite vampire. And why Whedon’s ideas may have backfired had he done just a tad more follow-up.  
  
First, the Karloff connection.  
  
Most of us know he was an actor, though few recognize him as the voice (and narrator) of the best Christmas story ever – _The Grinch Who Stole Christmas_. But Karloff was more than just a green guy, more than just an actor. He was born into an already famous family. The Pratts. His older brothers were all diplomats and his aunt was the rather famous Anna Leonowens. (And for those of you who don’t know who she was – there’s a small little movie starring a couple of fairly decent actors who depict a fictional (and musical) account of her life. I direct your attention to _The King and I_.)  
  
And while Boris may have worried about how his family felt about him acting, he need not have. By all accounts, his brothers were very much tickled by his chosen profession.  
  
So really, while nice, that doesn’t explain Joss Whedon’s other clues about our William Pratt.  
  
So what do we know of William pre-vampire life?  
  
We know he was wealthy.  
  
How?  
  
In both _Fool For Love_ and _Lies My Parents Told Me_ , the scenes of William’s house give us ample evidence of the family’s status. While it is only one room, given the parameters of what we see, it is fairly easy to surmise their wealth. However, it is the dialogue in _Fool For Love_ that totally cements their status. William asks his mother if she wants him to send the carriage round for Doctor Gull. He probably could have easily said, “Sir William Gull.” Doctor Gull was created a baronet in 1872 because he successfully cured the Prince of Wales during a bout of typhoid fever. He was, at times, also Queen Victoria’s personal physician. So if Anne Pratt called upon Dr. Gull’s services, the family traveled in rather vaunted circles.  
  
There’s another connection there that Joss tried to make, but I’ll address that later on. Right now I’m just reveling in the Pratts.  
  
So if Anne Pratt was wealthy, so was her son.  
  
Just who might these wealthy Pratts have been?  
  
My research led me to the famous Pratts of the 19th Century (at least in England).  
  
And those would be the descendants of Lord Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden (of Camden Town in London, Camden Yards, Camden N.J., etc., etc., ad nauseam), who was Lord Chancellor in 1766. His son was named Viscount Bayham at the same time he got his earldom, elevating the family to the peerage. So one hundred years later, they would have been rather titled indeed, because in 1812, John Pratt, son of Charles was created Earl of Brecknock and Marquess Camden.  
  
The accolades went on, so by 1866, the family was well established as hobnobbers.  
  
All of that sort of backfires on what I believe was Whedon’s real theory about William the Bloody.  
  
He was not, as Whedon tries rather ham-handedly to insinuate, the real Jack the Ripper. Neither was Dr. Gull, but that’s another story. Because on the scene changes in _Fool For Love_ , London 1888 is listed as the fateful moment William is turned by Drusilla, and then a second switch in scenes has the Fanged Four in Yorkshire. There is a theory that Jack, after completing his murder spree in London, fled north to Yorkshire, because there were similar murders in the six months following. But no one’s proven that the Yorkshire Ripper was the same Jack of London fame. And it couldn’t have been William – because William didn’t mutilate women. He drove railroad spikes in the heads (or hearts) of his tormentors.  
  
Back to the Pratts, because the Jack the Ripper connection is too complex to just gloss over.  
  
I theorized, in my crazy little head, that William the Bloody, born William Pratt, was the youngest son of the Marquess of Camden, and when his older brothers died, was known as Viscount Bayham. I’ve carried that theory throughout each of my stories, although in _Baby Love_ , I have his surname as Stevenson, which was a deliberate play on why I thought he was so embarrassed by his poetry.  
  
That theory? That he was descended from one of England’s premier poets (Burns, Wordsworth, R.L. Stevenson, etc.).  
  
Which I also played with a little bit in _Origins_ (his Scottish grandfather, etc.) until I settled upon the Viscount Bayham idea.  
  
So in each of the subsequent stories (Safe in My Own Skin, Roses in December, Revelations, and Resolutions) Spike isn’t just some guy, he’s actually nobility – which further explains his disdain for Angelus (who wasn’t nearly wealthy or connected and well, to William, he’s Irish, which would explain everything in the Victorian peerage mind).  
  
But just how I’ll reveal that Spike is Viscount Bayham remains to be seen. And if anyone remembers, I kind of alluded to this whole idea in Nicholson’s thoughts . . . (For more on that, see Chapter 12 of Resolutions. . . .)  
  
And though I’ve hinted at going over the Ripper connection, I don’t have the energy for it right now. Perhaps at another time.


End file.
